The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #281 ｜ Edward VI

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs. This week I shall be continuing my series all about

00:00:26.020 The English Monarchy

00:00:28.220 We did a little mini-series, didn't we, on Constantine

00:00:32.180 Constantine the Great

00:00:33.000 And then one or two other episodes

00:00:35.020 But now, back to the story

00:00:37.240 If you remember last time I finished up talking about Henry VIII

00:00:40.920 We finished up with Henry VIII finally dying

00:00:44.400 I say finally, he was unwell for a long time

00:00:47.280 But he wasn't all that old, he was in his fifties

00:00:49.740 And so, it passes surely to one of his children

00:00:53.500 He's got three children

00:00:55.120 He's got Mary, Bloody Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon

00:00:59.100 Who is in her 30s now

00:01:00.740 He's got Elizabeth, who's the daughter of Anne Boleyn

00:01:04.440 Who's a teenager now

00:01:05.640 But then he's got a boy, hasn't he?

00:01:07.920 Do you remember?

00:01:09.120 Jane Seymour did finally give him the boy he wanted

00:01:12.280 Edward, little Edward

00:01:14.480 Now he's only nine years old

00:01:16.460 And the way it worked, of course, is that it will pass to a boy 0.80

00:01:20.420 So we are now faced then with a minority 0.78

00:01:24.180 by a child king a nine-year-old boy that's always a problem isn't it because of course the child

00:01:31.860 isn't going to be able to rule in any way he's not gonna be able to do the business of government

00:01:36.140 in any way someone's gonna have to aren't they perhaps more than one person but someone is still

00:01:41.380 going to can't have a power vacuum you can't have it particularly in medieval times well any times

00:01:47.760 any times really can't have a power vacuum so there's always ambitious men wherever you are

00:01:51.660 when and wherever you are in history, there will never be a shortage of ambitious men that want to

00:01:57.440 do that job. So that's the story of the immediate aftermath of Henry VIII's death. Who will the real

00:02:05.360 reins of power go to? Nominally it's his son Edward, but really, truly, where's the cockpit of

00:02:12.020 power? Who is going to be setting policy? Who's going to be the brain at the top of government

00:02:17.400 now. Well, let's get into the story. As before, I should be reading from Professor Sir Charles

00:02:22.620 Oman and Sir Winston Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples. So let me pick up the

00:02:27.940 story with Sir Charles Oman, who says this, quote, it remained to be seen who would now sway the

00:02:34.500 sword and scepter that the dead tyrant had gripped so firmly, Henry VIII, the dead tyrant. In his last

00:02:41.100 years, Henry had surrounded himself by ministers less notable and less capable than Wolsey or

00:02:47.580 Cromwell. The chief place was held by his brother-in-law, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford.

00:02:54.320 Now, first thing to say is that the Seymour family, at this point in time, become extremely

00:03:00.060 important. So the king is Edward, one half of his family, the male half of his family are the Tudors,

00:03:06.440 of course well the other side of his family though are Seymour's the maternal side of his family

00:03:11.420 just the way it worked back then or very often is that that other half of the family just by

00:03:17.760 default really become super super important and well he's got uncles powerful and rich uncles

00:03:24.460 on the Seymour side who are ambitious and on the Tudor side it's mainly women Henry had almost

00:03:33.160 entirely women henry had two sisters and they and their children and grandchildren become important

00:03:39.400 in the story as well really quite quickly but nonetheless there's no sort of very very powerful

00:03:44.160 male uncles or anything like that on the tudor side so where the seymour family were always going

00:03:49.700 to be powerful as soon as henry the eighth died um they're perhaps even more powerful than they

00:03:54.720 might otherwise have been because there's no giant rival you remember when you know when edward the

00:03:59.880 died and he had a little son or two sons but he had a little son Edward V and there was a power

00:04:05.880 struggle between his uncles because he had powerful uncles on both sides of his family

00:04:10.080 well in this instance there are no powerful Tudor uncles so the Seymours basically take over

00:04:17.360 Edward Seymour there's an Edward and there's a Thomas Edward is the elder one but they both

00:04:23.660 become extremely important in this story over the next few years so Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford

00:04:29.180 The brother of the unfortunate Queen Jane

00:04:31.880 Jane Seymour who died in childbirth

00:04:34.060 Well a couple of weeks after giving birth to Edward

00:04:37.040 Of complications from that birth

00:04:38.640 So he's the brother of the unfortunate Queen Jane

00:04:41.740 And the uncle of Prince Edward

00:04:44.480 Or now King Edward VI

00:04:45.820 It was natural that the charge of the young king

00:04:48.600 A bright and promising but delicate lad

00:04:51.440 Now in his tenth year

00:04:53.120 Well he was nine at the time but okay

00:04:55.000 Should fall to his uncle

00:04:57.280 but the late king distrusting Hertford's wisdom had left the regency not to him individually

00:05:04.220 but to a council of 16 members of whom he was but the president so Henry VIII had seen this coming

00:05:11.480 Henry VIII knew he was dying for years but knew he was really really dying imminently for quite a

00:05:17.480 few months before he did finally die so he put provisions in place he had acts of parliament to

00:05:22.940 rubber stamp ratify and make completely legal really his ideas about succession his idea was

00:05:30.800 that quite straightforwardly Edward should be king next and after him should he die with no

00:05:36.480 issue would be Mary and if she would die with no issue it would be Elizabeth but also if he

00:05:41.940 Henry VIII should die whilst Edward is still a child which he knew was happening Henry VIII also

00:05:48.340 knew that men of power and influence and ambition would take control and he wanted some say over

00:05:54.880 that some power over that and so he puts together this council of 16 and he puts he puts edward

00:06:02.240 seymour in charge of that now could henry the eighth of known that edward seymour would become

00:06:07.680 just basically the all-powerful all-dominant king in all but name really a regent uh well he ends

00:06:13.700 up taking the title of Lord Protector, and you may recognize that from a much later period

00:06:18.920 of Oliver Cromwell. It's been used before, in fact, the title of Lord Protector. Well,

00:06:24.840 Edward Seymour, let's just cut the trace on that, he becomes Lord Protector, which is a

00:06:29.120 regent, which is king in all but name, basically. It's the head of government, you can say,

00:06:33.800 head of the country. I mean, nominally, the king is head, but still, as I say, the cockpit

00:06:38.420 bit of power put it like that who decides policy it's the lord protector that is edward seymour

00:06:44.580 the uncle and of the king and the brother of jane seymour okay seymour continues saying seymour

00:06:51.000 however succeeded in getting a more complete control over his colleagues than had been intended

00:06:56.920 mainly by bribing them to consent with titles and large gifts of money they allowed him to make

00:07:04.080 himself protector of the realm and of the king's person and to create himself Duke of Somerset

00:07:10.200 from here on forward most histories just call him Somerset or the Duke of Somerset it's the same

00:07:15.620 person Edward Seymour Somerset there's only two or three three dukes at this point in history so

00:07:22.840 if you're a duke then you're very very very close to the throne so has himself created the Duke of

00:07:29.000 Somerset. Everyone goes on saying, in return, he made the two chief members of the council earls.

00:07:35.500 Rysley, of the Anglo-Catholic party, became Earl of Southampton, and Dudley, he will become

00:07:41.860 important, son of that Dudley who had paid with his head for serving Henry VII too well, was created

00:07:48.500 Earl of Warwick. There's more than one Dudley. There's the Dudley brothers, in fact, the Dudley

00:07:53.980 brothers, but the most important one of those is John Dudley, and he's created Earl of Warwick.

00:07:59.660 He will become very important in this story as well. Everyone goes on saying, having seized the

00:08:03.820 reins of power, the Duke of Somerset soon showed himself a man of character, very different from

00:08:09.580 the late king's expectation. The late king's expectation was that he would just be a good boy

00:08:14.600 and do as he's told and be a good uncle and hold the fort down for a few years until Edward can

00:08:21.260 rule as a king in his own right. Well, that's not what Edward Seymour and his brother, Thomas Seymour,

00:08:28.280 but now Edward, Duke of Somerset, that's not how he decided to play his hand.

00:08:32.320 Oman says, instead of pursuing the middle course of Anglo-Catholic policy, which Henry had always

00:08:38.400 marked out, he threw himself at once into the hands of the Protestants. So, the story of religion 0.75

00:08:44.880 plays a massive part in these years. A massive part. A lot of people think that Henry VIII's

00:08:51.820 break with Rome and the Pope and Catholicism, which saw the massive, massive destruction,

00:09:00.800 almost wholesale destruction of the monasteries and various abbeys and almost like a war on

00:09:12.600 Catholics well a lot of that played out after Henry's death in the next few years here the next 1.00

00:09:18.440 two three four five years some people have said some historians have said and they're right to 0.90

00:09:23.720 say that one period in English history which was sped up which was on steroids shall we say

00:09:31.960 that was a short number of years which saw a giant change giant really really giant profound

00:09:39.820 change in the fabric of society in all sorts of senses but particularly of course religious

00:09:47.200 it was these years it wasn't Henry VIII it wasn't the Cromwell Thomas Cromwell years it was when

00:09:55.060 Edward VI was a little boy and the men around him were arch arch Protestants Evangelical Protestants 0.93

00:10:03.460 and they went berserk well I mean if you're Church of England you think it's a good thing

00:10:09.860 but they they went crazy they dialed it up to 11 they dialed it up to 12 because Henry VIII 0.71

00:10:15.840 although he'd broken with Rome um although he became like some sort of lukewarm Lutheran 0.55

00:10:23.240 although all those things are true and he sent Cromwell Thomas Cromwell and others to go and

00:10:29.440 break the power of the monasteries, Henry VIII still kept it on a relatively low burn.

00:10:37.360 Henry VIII still didn't, even all up to his death, it didn't go full bore, right?

00:10:42.180 He didn't go full Anabaptist.

00:10:43.980 He didn't declare war on his own Catholics.

00:10:49.720 He didn't go to the extreme lengths of a later generation we would call Puritan.

00:10:57.220 He didn't do that, Henry VIII.

00:10:58.820 He would vacillate 0.91

00:11:00.640 Omar said there just then

00:11:02.360 Some sort of middle ground

00:11:04.220 He would vacillate 1.00

00:11:05.400 Every now and again he would have a Catholic burnt

00:11:08.740 For being a Catholic essentially 0.57

00:11:11.220 But then a year or two later

00:11:13.600 He might have someone burnt for doing the exact opposite

00:11:16.520 Henry VIII really vacillated

00:11:18.280 And deliberately so

00:11:19.020 It seems like that was a deliberate course

00:11:21.100 He chose a deliberate policy

00:11:23.300 Well, now he's out of the way

00:11:25.260 All the most powerful men 1.00

00:11:26.520 nearly all the most powerful men in England, were all Protestants. 1.00

00:11:30.660 So you've got the Seymour brothers,

00:11:33.200 and you've got the Earl of Warwick, the Dudley brothers.

00:11:35.880 You've got the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cramner.

00:11:38.960 All these men, and many more around them, were hardline Protestants.

00:11:43.460 And now they've got the power.

00:11:46.060 They're going to go ahead with this revolution, or Reformation, shall we say.

00:11:51.040 They're going to go ahead with it, the English Reformation, 0.83

00:11:53.180 where Henry VIII had kept it dialed down to like a four, 0.98

00:11:56.520 Or a five

00:11:57.880 That's a completely arbitrary number I've made up

00:11:59.400 Where Henry the Hake kept it on a simmer

00:12:01.660 They're going to turn up to a rolling boil

00:12:03.580 They're going to turn up as high as they can

00:12:04.960 As quickly and as fast as they can

00:12:06.960 So that's what these next years are all about

00:12:10.300 And they make sure, of course

00:12:11.560 This will come into the story as well

00:12:12.720 They make sure, of course

00:12:14.160 That they raise the little boy

00:12:16.080 The little King Edward

00:12:17.420 They make sure they impregnate into his mind 0.99

00:12:21.000 Protestantism 0.99

00:12:22.440 Hardline Protestantism 0.81

00:12:24.720 Because the last thing they want, the last thing they need 0.99

00:12:27.600 Is him to grow up a Catholic and undo everything 1.00

00:12:31.160 They make sure that all his teachers and all his learning 1.00

00:12:34.420 Is super, super Protestant in bent 1.00

00:12:38.960 Okay, let's let Oman continue 0.99

00:12:41.980 He says this 0.99

00:12:42.760 That the Duke of Somerset threw himself into the hands of the Protestants 0.99

00:12:47.200 His first actions were directed towards the completion of the Reformation 1.00

00:12:51.660 By sweeping away all those remnants of the old faith

00:12:55.400 Which the late king had retained himself 0.99

00:12:57.760 And imposed upon his subjects

00:12:59.720 Henry VIII had issued the Bible in English 0.99

00:13:02.640 A pretty solid Protestant thing to do 0.92

00:13:04.920 And caused the litany and certain other parts

00:13:07.680 Of the church service to be said

00:13:09.780 In the national language

00:13:11.140 The vernacular, English of course

00:13:13.120 But Somerset abolished the use of Latin language

00:13:16.540 Altogether in mass 1.00

00:13:19.560 Again, Catholics just can't accept that 1.00

00:13:21.620 I'm not saying they can't, I mean they cannot

00:13:24.540 It's part of their faith that the Mass can be done in Latin

00:13:29.520 So if you're abolishing that across the country

00:13:32.400 You are sort of saying it's against the law to be Catholic

00:13:35.260 Okay, Somerset abolished the use of Latin language altogether in church

00:13:41.720 And caused the communion service and all of the rest of the rites of the church

00:13:46.860 To be celebrated in English

00:13:49.000 By the end of 1548, Henry VIII dies in 1547, so one year later, he had authorised the issue of the, quote,

00:13:57.160 first book of common prayer, quote, the earliest form of our own Anglican prayer book, end quote.

00:14:02.820 This becomes a really big issue religiously, this, this, the common prayer book, the book of common prayer.

00:14:08.400 Right, so basically it's as simple as, it sort of boils down to this.

00:14:11.960 Protestants like that and are in favour of that and they've got no problem with that and Catholics hate it and can't accept it.

00:14:18.060 it's an insult to their faith and to Rome okay that's how divisive it is Oman goes on saying

00:14:23.820 Cramner who's the Archbishop of Canterbury and had been for quite a long time Cramner

00:14:28.180 had the chief part in its completion the Book of Common Prayer and his great gifts of expression

00:14:34.680 are born witness to by many of the most spiritual and beautiful prayers of our splendid and sonorous

00:14:41.020 liturgy that's Sir Charles Oman talking there at the beginning of the 20th century he's a he's a

00:14:46.520 Victorian person, really, Sir Charles Oman, and he's writing in the late, very late 19th century,

00:14:51.480 early 20th century here, so, and he's a Church of England person, of course, so he characterises it

00:14:57.240 that way, that it's a beautiful prayer book, and splendid, sonorous liturgy, that's Charles Oman's

00:15:04.160 opinion there, okay, he goes on saying, when the fear of Henry had been removed from his mind,

00:15:10.960 Cramner showed himself an undoubted Protestant, Cramner, as Archbishop of Canterbury,

00:15:15.960 and chief of all things spiritual under Henry VIII,

00:15:18.960 he had to walk whatever line Henry VIII told him to walk.

00:15:22.860 It's that simple.

00:15:23.880 He could easily get his head cut off if he didn't do exactly what Henry wanted.

00:15:28.080 So Crabner was very, very skilled in reading Henry VIII,

00:15:32.900 making sure that at every given moment, more or less,

00:15:35.380 he was doing whatever Henry wanted in terms of religion and the church.

00:15:41.120 If Henry seemed to be vacillating slightly more towards Protestantism,

00:15:45.340 That's what Cramner would do

00:15:46.520 Henry seems to be vacillating back

00:15:48.760 Much more towards old school Catholicism 0.97

00:15:51.820 Cramner just went with that

00:15:53.600 Again, he had no choice

00:15:55.760 But now

00:15:56.540 Old Henry is dead

00:15:59.240 And there's only a boy in charge

00:16:01.800 And in fact

00:16:03.420 The Lord Protector is an arch-Protestant

00:16:05.480 So Cramner can show his true colours

00:16:07.640 And his true colours are 1.00

00:16:09.280 Extremely Protestant

00:16:11.180 Okay, everyone says

00:16:13.040 Cranmer showed himself to be undoubtedly Protestant, but he was a moderate man and spared many old rights and customs, harmless in themselves, from a love of conservatism with a small c.

00:16:25.120 The prayer book was well received by all save the extreme Romanists, Catholics that is, and the few partisans of continental Protestantism who complained that it did not go far enough.

00:16:38.580 So despite the fact that the English Protestants are dialing it up to 11

00:16:43.300 There's some people 0.96

00:16:44.780 But even that's not good enough

00:16:46.860 Even that's not far enough 1.00

00:16:47.680 Oh I mentioned Anabaptists 1.00

00:16:49.900 Arch Anabaptists 1.00

00:16:51.460 Extreme Calvinists 0.82

00:16:53.440 There's a whole different number of sects already

00:16:55.280 A whole different number for some of them

00:16:57.280 Even what Cramner and Somerset are doing

00:17:02.100 Isn't good enough

00:17:03.580 Can never please everyone

00:17:05.500 All the time

00:17:06.980 Okay, Oman continues saying this

00:17:08.520 If the introduction of the English prayer book was both popular and necessary

00:17:12.900 It was far otherwise with the measures which accompanied it

00:17:17.120 Somerset's first year of rule was the time of the demolition

00:17:21.220 Of all the old church ornaments and furniture

00:17:24.040 Which the Protestants condemned as mere idols and lumber

00:17:28.280 Imagine that, you've got this big ornate cross in your church

00:17:33.220 And it's been there for centuries

00:17:34.500 The Protestants come along and say that's idolatrous

00:17:37.960 That's heretical 0.84

00:17:39.160 You're doing Christianity wrong 1.00

00:17:41.240 Get rid of it 1.00

00:17:42.460 It's just a piece of wood

00:17:43.320 That's getting between you and God

00:17:45.540 That thing, whatever it is

00:17:48.260 A stained glass window

00:17:49.280 A golden chalice

00:17:51.340 Whatever it is

00:17:52.140 Big golden cross

00:17:53.520 Anything really

00:17:54.220 That is actually standing between you and Jesus

00:17:58.900 You don't need that

00:18:01.420 Get rid of it

00:18:02.400 It's a distraction

00:18:03.080 All that matters

00:18:04.980 Is your relationship with God

00:18:07.880 And your understanding of the word

00:18:09.820 As communicated by his son

00:18:11.440 And all these gold

00:18:14.200 Like even incense

00:18:15.400 Incense is getting in the way of that

00:18:17.780 Do away with it

00:18:19.280 Great paintings on the walls

00:18:21.700 Depicting whatever

00:18:22.880 Depicting the life of John the Baptist

00:18:26.060 Or something

00:18:26.580 Depicting the crucifixion

00:18:27.700 Get rid of all of that

00:18:28.480 That's in the way

00:18:29.720 Okay

00:18:31.180 So getting rid of all of that

00:18:33.560 Was largely done in these years

00:18:35.940 After Henry VIII died

00:18:37.200 Okay

00:18:37.680 Okay, they did away with ornaments, furniture

00:18:40.020 And they were condemned as idols and lumber

00:18:43.140 Not only were the images and pictures removed

00:18:45.900 And stained glass and statues, statues smashed up

00:18:48.280 There might be a lovely statue in your local church

00:18:51.100 Which again may be centuries old

00:18:53.100 Of Mary, the mother of God, our lady 0.79

00:18:56.740 They want you to smash it up 0.87

00:18:59.280 And if you don't, they will

00:19:00.240 Get rid of it

00:19:01.220 It's not going to go down well with a lot of people 1.00

00:19:04.600 Because a lot of people are still Catholic

00:19:07.380 A lot of people never went along with Henry VIII's Reformation at all. 0.97

00:19:13.580 Okay, this could be a problem, couldn't it, for the whole country,

00:19:18.180 for, again, the fabric of society.

00:19:20.180 Not only were the images and pictures removed,

00:19:22.980 but much beautiful carved work and stained glass was ruthlessly broken up.

00:19:27.400 This was done with an irreverence and violence

00:19:30.280 which deeply shocked the majority of the nation,

00:19:32.800 and Somerset's agents made no distinction between monuments of superstition and harmless works of

00:19:39.040 religious art. Two of the bishops, Bonner of London and Gardner of Winchester, remember Stephen

00:19:45.200 Gardner, who ventured to oppose the Lord Protector's doings, were placed in honourable confinement.

00:19:52.720 Prison. Okay, let's read about that, all that bit, in Winston Churchill. Let's see how he gives us a

00:19:58.620 few different details and in fact even characterizes things slightly differently here or there. Sir

00:20:04.520 Winston Churchill wrote this in the history of the English-speaking peoples, quote, the English

00:20:09.020 Reformation under Henry VIII had received its guiding impulse from the king's passions and his

00:20:14.180 desire for power. He still deemed himself a good Catholic. However, none of his Catholic wives had

00:20:21.040 born him a son. Catherine of Aragon had given birth to the future Queen Mary and Boleyn to the future

00:20:27.200 Queen Elizabeth, but it was Jane, daughter of the Protestant House of Seymour, who had produced

00:20:32.640 the future Edward VI. Fears of a disputed succession lay deeply engraved in Henry VIII

00:20:39.660 and in the whole people, and it was chiefly the desire and the duty to safeguard the throne of

00:20:45.440 England for his only legitimate son that had impelled him in his later years to break not

00:20:51.880 only with Rome but with his innermost religious convictions. We hope you enjoyed that video and

00:20:57.580 if you did please head over to lotusseaters.com for the full unabridged video.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 20, 2026

PREVIEW： Epochs #281 ｜ Edward VI

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